THE Annual East African Community (EAC), Inter- Parliamentary Games (IPG) are set to be changed after the Bureau of Speakers found them to have become costly and untenable.
As such, the Bureau has found and resolved that there is need for the Joint Preparatory Committee (JPC) to standardize the games to be played by considering popularity of proposed games to participants and the public and report during the next meeting of the Bureau.
Coincidentally the 10th IPG were just kicking off in Kampala, Uganda when the Bureau of the East African Community Speakers of National Legislators and the East African Legislative Assembly (EAC) met at Entebbe in the same country, for their 13th Meeting.
Resolutions released by the Secretariat of the Bureau and made available to the ‘Daily News’ show that JPC will essentially have to develop a Policy Paper to guide the standardization of the number of players for each game, duration and frequency of the games.
“…the inter-parliamentary games have become costly and untenable. There is need for JPC to standardize the games to be played by considering popularity of the proposed games to participants and the public … the Bureau tasked the JPC to develop a Policy Paper that will guide on standardization of the number of players for each game, the duration of the games, frequency of the games,” the resolutions read in part.
The Bureau of EAC Speakers include the Speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and speakers of national legislatures from the EAC partner states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda and were meeting under host of the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, Rebecca Kadaga.
The Bureau further decided that there should be rationalization of the number of sporting disciplines to be included in the EAC-IPG; review of the structure and format of the games and the look to a possibility of including games for members of parliament with disabilities.
In another move, the Bureau resolved that since trophies are awarded to winners in games all over the world, the trophies should be reinstated and awarded to the winners of the EAC-IPG.
JPC has been ordered to develop concrete proposals to deal with indiscipline arising in the games including proposals on how to deal with participants who do not follow the rules of the games.
They so decided since indiscipline was the core reason for not awarding the trophies to winners.
The Bureau has also resolved that the committee develop proposals on measures to professionalize the officiating of the EAC IPG and report in May 2020; provide a discipline report to the Bureau in one of its meetings annually and that the host of the 11th (next) EAC-IPG be the EALA.
